Dog carriage for a railroad car mover



United States Patent [72] Inventor Cecil G. Hunt c/o The Nolan Company,Bowerston, Ohio 44695 [21] Appl. No. 786,631 [22] Filed Dec. 24, 1968[45] Patented Aug. 4, 1970 [73] Assignee The Nolan Company Bowerston,Ohio at Corp. of Ohio [54] DOG CARRIAGE FOR A RAILROAD CAR MOVER 10Claims, 9 Drawing Figs.

[52] U.S.Cl 104/162, 198/221 [51] lnt.Cl ..B61b 13/12, 1361b l/OO, 865g25/10 [50] Field of Search 104/162, 165, 170; 198/160, 221; 214/lnq [56]References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,961,973 11/1960 Bozman 104/1623,269,522 8/1966 Foggetal.

ABSTRACT: A dog carriage which carries the pivoted dog in such a mannerthat it is normally in inoperative lowered position so that during theretracting movement of the carriage beneath the car it will not engagethe car. However, the dog is raised to operative car-engaging positionjust before being reversed to move the car. The raising of the dog isunder the positive control of an actuating roller on the carriage whichis operatively connected to the dog and is engaged by the truck of thecar during the retracting movement of the carriage. The rollerarrangement is such that the raising of the dog by the roller will onlyoccur in response to engagement of the roller with the truck of the carand not in response to engagement with hopper doors or the likedepending to a low position from the car. Quick-release means isprovided in association with the actuating roller so that the roller canbe dropped to an inoperative position when desired, for example, toallow passage of low clearance Diesel locomotives.

'CAR 8 CARRAIGE MOVEMENT Patented Aug. 4, 1970 3,522,772

Sheet 1 of 4 (I) J N U) .l

'2 Lu U! I 2 J l U) l W U) d v INVENTOR.

cscu. G. HUNT R3 BY MAlgeNEY. MILLER a. RAMBO ATT RNEY Sheet on mow mmINVENTOR.

CECIL G. HUNT BY MAHONEYJWLLER & RAM 0 BY w x ATTORNEYS Patented Aug. 4,197

.hbuzm m m u n 410 6 Pate nted Aug. 4, 1970 Sheet of 4 INVENTOR.

CECIL G. HUNT & M

my N08 U.S. PATENT 3,522,772 DOG CARRIAGE FOR A RAILROAD CAR MOVER Thecarriage of the present invention is an improvement over that disclosedin the patent to Hunt No. 3,377,961, issued April 16, 1968. In thearrangement disclosed in that patent, the dogs of all four carriages ofthe car mover were normally biased into raised position and were allretracted simultaneously by a cable arrangement. This was not a completesuccess because of the stretch in the cables. Also, there was a tendencyfor the dogs to engage lowly depending doors of the cars instead of thetrucks thereof which would get the system out of time, especially whenhandling mixed trips or trains of different length cars. Also, with thispatented system, it was impossible to clear the machine quickly in caseit was desirable for allowing the passage, for example, of low-clearanceDiesel locomotives. The present invention overcomes all of thesedifficulties in an effective manner.

In the accompanying drawings, there is illustrated the improveddog'carriage of the present invention and in these drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a schematic plan view of a fluid-actuated car moverincorporating the improved dog carriage.

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged side elevational view of the carriage taken fromthe position indicated at line 2-2 of FIGURE l showing the dog inlowered position as the carriage is being retracted under the car.

FIGURE 3 is a plan view taken from the position indicated at line 3-3 ofFIGURE 2.

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged transverse sectional view taken on line 4-4 ofFIGURE 2.

FIGURE 5 is a view similar to FIGURE 2 showing the carriage furtherretracted with the dog-actuating roller in engagement with the car so asto raise the dog to engage the car.

FIGURE 6 is a view similar to FIGURE 5 but showing the dog in pushingposition relative to the car just as the retracting movement of thecarriage is completed and the carriage is ready to reverse to push thecar.

FIGURE 7 is a view similar to FIGURE 6 but indicating how the dog andassociated roller function in connection with a low hopper door on acar.

FIGURE 8 is an enlarged side elevational view of the dogactuating rollerand associated locking means.

FIGURE 9 is a plan view taken from the position indicated at line 9-9 ofFIGURE 8 With reference to the drawings, in FIGURE 1 the hydraulic carmover system disclosed in Pat. No. 3,377,961 is indicated schematically.Similar reference characters are used in FIGURE l to indicate partswhich correspond to those shown in the patent. However, as indicatedabove, the present invention deals with improvements in the dog carriagestructure.

The car pusher unit is composed of two separate assemblies, designated17 and 18, mounted in cooperative relationship with the respectiveopposed running rails R of the railroad trackway T. Each of theassemblies 17 and 18 includes a bed plate 19 upon which is mounted asingle-acting hydraulic cylinder and associated parts. Each bed plate isalso arranged to receive one of the running rail sections S which willbe disposed in alignment with the other sections of the rail at thatparticular side of the trackway as illustrated in FIGURE 1.

In FIGURE l,.the upper cylinder unit will be designated by the numeral21 and as the right-hand unit, and the lower cylinder unit will bedesignated by the numeral 22 and as the left-hand unit, as viewed fromthe right-hand end of the figure which is in the direction the cars willbe advanced by the system, as indicated by the arrow in FIGURE 1. Thecylinder unit 21 has its piston connected to the car-engaging dogs 31and 33, disposed on carriages 51 and 53, respectively, and the cylinderunit 22 has its piston connected to the car-engaging dogs 32 and 34,disposed in carriages 52 and 54, respectively. Also, the right-handcylinder and car-engaging dogs are arranged in a staggered manner withrespect to the left-hand unit, such that the right-hand cylinder 21 isdisposed rearward, relative to the direction of movement of the cars, ascompared 2 to-the left-hand cylinder 22; The piston-rods of the opposedcylinders 21 and 22 are connected together by a suitable flexible membersuch as a cable 23, which runs around the idler 9 sheaves 24 as the rearends of the respective bed plates 19.

The result of this arrangement is that when cylinder unit 21 is fullyextended and cylinder unit 22 is fully retracted, the

pusher dogs Hand 32 will be disposed on opposite sides of the trackwayin slightly longitudinally overlapping relationship and the pusher dogs33 and 34 will be similarly relatively disposed. This makes it possibleto move a car in four successive steps.

When the controls, including the limit switches lLS and SLS at one sideand 2LS and 6LS at the other side, for the hydraulic unit shown in saidpatent are properly actuated to supply power to the cylinder units 21and 22, pusher dog 31 moves the car forward to the limit of its travelwhile pusher dog 32 is being simultaneously retracted. When pusher dog31 reaches the limit of its travel, engagement with the car istransferred to pusher dog 32 on the opposite side of the track. Actionof the cylinder units is reversed and the car is advanced by pusher dog32, while pusher dog 33 is retracting. When dog 32 reaches the limit ofits travel, engagement with the car is transferred to dog 33 whichcontinues to advance the car until it reaches the limit of its travel,at which time engagement with the car is transferred to dog 34 forfurther advancement.

The track assembly 17 is further equipped with an automatic strokeselector device, indicated generally at 25 in FIGURE 1, to adjust thecylinder strokes for cars of varying types which have different ordifferently spaced trucks, interposed within the same string. Thisautomatic stroke selector device consists of a treadle, and associatedcontrol parts which cooperate therewith and with limit switches 3LS and4L8 at that side, so arranged that when dogs 32 or 34 are advancing thecars and dogs 31 and 33 are retracting, if the next following set of cartrucks causes dog 31 to be depressed (as it is retracted) to passbeneath the advancing trucks, means will be actuated to depress thethreadle which will set up an electric control circuit to control thehydraulic unit so that the action of the cylinders will be automaticallyreversed as soon as dog 31 has passed from beneath the truck and raisedinto carpushing position to engage the truck when reversed. Dog 31 willthen move forward, advancing the cars until it reaches the limit of itstravel, at which time engagement with the cars will be transferred todog 32 as previously described. This automatic stroke selection willoccur each time dog 31 is depressed, during its retracting movement andsubsequent free travel or forward travel before car engagement therebyavoiding excessive impact which might otherwise occur with cars ofvarious length.

The improved dog carriage of this invention will be described withreference to the carriage 51 for the dog 31, shown best in FIGURES 2-9.However, it will be understood that all the other carriages will besubstantially the same except that this carriage 51 does have means forcontrolling the automatic stroke selector device as disclosed in saidpatent. This means is carried by a bracket 59 carried by the carriagewhich supports the roller arm 50 and the associated plunger 56. Thecarriage 51 is connected to the carriage 53 by the rod 65 and isconnected to the piston rod 41 of the piston 21 at the connection 26.The carriage includes the parallel edgewise plates 27 and 28 which aresupported by rollers 29 and 30 operating on the respective guideways 35and 36 fixed to the bed plate 19 (FIGURE 4). The dog 31 is pivoted forvertical rocking movement between the plates 27 and 28 by means of atransverse pivot pin 37.

The dog 31 of this improved structure normally drops by gravity to thedepressed inoperative position shown in FIGURE 2 at which time it willnot be in position to engage the car C in either direction of movement.It is positively raised into car-engaging position by means of anactuating roller 200 which is first engaged by the car during theretracting movement of the carriage 51, as indicated in FIGURE 2, wherethe retracting movement is indicated as being to the right and thedesired advancing car movement to the left. The

roller 200 is mounted for vertical swinging movement on the upper arm ofa bell crank lever, indicated generally by the number 201, which has alower arm that is connected to one end of a flexible chain and springconnection 202 that is connected at its other end to the lower end ofthe dog 31 in such a manner that a pull on this connection will swingthe dog upwardly. It will be understood that the spring is of sufficientrigidity that when the roller 200 is depressed, the dog 31 is raised.

The bell crank lever arrangement 201 is illustrated best in FIGURES 8and 9. The upper or roller arm 203 is provided by a pair of bars whichare rigidly connected by a transverse member 204 and straddle the roller200, that is of relatively large diameter, and carry the roller axle Sadjacent their outer ends. This arm 203 is pivotally mounted adjacentits opposite or inner end by a transverse pivot pin 206 carried by pivotbearings 207 on the upper edges of the respective carriage plates 27 and28 and about the axis of which the arm may rock. This pivot alsosupports for rocking movement the upper end of a curved depending lowerspring arm 208 of arcuate form, the lower end of which is connected tothe yieldable connection 202 and the upper end of which is disposedbetween the bars of the upper rocker arm 203. This arm has its upper endformed with a lug extension 209 which projects laterally and carries aquick-release pin 210 which extends transversely thereof through anopening therein and through aligning openings in portions of the bars ofthe arm 203 which are extended beyond the pivot 206. The pin, when inplace, has a tight fit with the aligning openings in the two arms andlocks them together as a bell crank for swinging together about thepivot 206, but when the pin is released, the two arms are free to swingindependently and relatively about the pivot.

The operation of this improved dog carriage will be apparent fromFIGURES 2, 3, 5 and 6. ln FIGURE 2, the carriage 51 is shown inoperative position being retracted under the side frame of a car C. Thequick-release pin 210 is in operative position locking the arms 203 and208 together. At this time, the dog 31 will be in its loweredinoperative position which is the position it will normally assume bygravity. Therefore, as the carriage 51 is retracted under the car in thedirection indicated by the arrow in FIGURE 2, the dog 31 will not engagethe car. However, as the retracting movement progresses to the pointindicated in FIGURE 5, the dog-actuating roller 200 will engage the sideframe of the car and will exert a pull on the yieldable connection 202which will swing the dog up into yielding engagement with the car frame.Although the spring is urging the dog to assume an operative raisedposition, the dog will slide along beneath the car frame until it passesthe frame to the point indicated in FIGURE 6 just before the carriage isreversed in the direction of the arrow indicated in FIGURE 6 in order tomove the car. At this time, the dog will have been swung upwardly into aposition where it will engage the car frame and exert a pushing actionon the car in the direction indicated by the arrow in this figure uponreversal of the carriage. The pushing action by this particular dog willcontinue as long as the roller is depressed by the car frame or untilthe movement of the carriage 51 is reversed, at which time the roller200 will be disengaged from the car frame and the connection 202 will berelaxed so that the dog 31 will swing by gravity down to its normalinoperative position as shown in FIGURE 2 The dog-positioning operationwill be repeated as the carriage is retracted under a succeeding carframe and the roller 200 engages therewith.

If it is desired to release the roller arms 203 and 208 from each otherso that the roller 200 can drop out of operative position, it is merelynecessary to pull out the quick-release pin 210 and the roller arm 203will then drop to the broken line position indicated in FIGURE 8 wherethe roller will be in a very low position such that it would permit thepassage of vehicles with low track clearance such as Diesel locomotivesor the like, in either direction, without actuating the dog.

This improved dog-carriage arrangement a so has he advantage indicatedin FIGURE 7 of overcoming a difficulty present with the previouscarriage structure in connection with low hopper doors on cars, asindicated at H in FIGURE 7. With the previous patent design these doorswould extend out into the path of the normally raised dog and the dogwould engage the hopper door rather than the car frame so that themachine would get out of cycle. With the present arrangement, when thecarriage is retracted under a low designed, sagging or open hopper door,the dog is in inoperative position, and the roller is up in operativeposition as explained above. The roller contacts the door and the dog isfully or partly raised, but due to the shape of the door and thedistance between the roller and the dog, the dog falls back toinoperative position as soon as the roller passes the door and beforethe dog can make contact with the door. This makes it possible to usethe machine without getting out of cycle even though a number of themachines are used in tandem since it is unlikely that the dogs willengage low hopper doors.

I claim:

1. In a car mover having a carriage mounted for reciprocating movementbeneath a car to alternately move it forward beneath and in engagementwith the car to push the car and to then retract it beneath the car; adog pivoted to said carriage and normally in a lowered inoperativeposition where it will not engage the car, an actuating member on thecarriage and normally projecting upwardly therefrom to a position whereit will engage the car, and an operative connection between saidactuating member and said dog so that when the member is depressed thedog is raised into car-engaging position.

2. Structure according to Claim 1 in which the operative connection is ayieldable connection.

3. Structure according to Claim 2 in which the actuating member includesa releasable connection to permit it to drop to a lowered inoperativeposition.

4. Structure according to Claim 3 in which the actuating member is inthe form ofa roller which is carried by a pivoted bell crank having anupper arm which supports the roller and a lower depending arm connectedto said yieldable connection, said dog being a pivoted member having acar-engaging portion on its upper end and having a lower portionconnected to said yieldable connection.

5. Structure according to Claim 4 in which the releasable connection ofsaid actuating member is between said upper and lower arms and when inposition prevents relative swinging thereof but when released permitssaid relative swinging.

6. A dog carriage for use in a car mover comprising means for supportingthe carriage for guided movement, a dog pivoted to the carriage andnormally dropping by gravity to a lowered non-operative position, anactuating member pivoted to said carriage and normally projecting abovethe carriage in a raised operative position, and an operative connectionbetween said actuating member and said dog so that when the member isdepressed the dog is raised.

7. Structure according to Claim 6 in which the operative connection is ayieldable connection.

8. Structure according to Claim 7 in which the actuating member includesa releasable connection to permit it to drop to a lowered inoperativeposition.

9. Structure according to Claim 8 in which the actuating member is inthe form ofa roller which is carried by a pivoted bell crank having anupper arm which supports the roller and a lower depending arm connectedto said yieldable connection, said dog being a pivoted member having acar-engaging portion on its upper end and having a lower portionconnected to said yieldable connection.

10. Structure according to Claim 9 in which the releasable connection ofsaid actuating member is between said upper and lower arms and when inposition prevents relative swinging thereof but when released permitssaid relative swinging.

